flower buds and flowers - white formflowers - red form
Eucalyptus sideroxylon, commonly known as mugga ironbark,[3]orred ironbark[4] is a small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has dark, deeply furrowed ironbark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white, red, pink or creamy yellow flowers and cup-shaped to shortened spherical fruit.
Eucalyptus sideroxylon is a tree that typically grows to a height of 25–35 m (82–115 ft) and forms a lignotuber. The bark is dark grey to black, deeply furrowed ironbark on the trunk and larger branches, smooth white to grey on the thinnest branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have lance-shaped to oblong or linear leaves that are 30–110 mm (1.2–4.3 in) long and 5–35 mm (0.20–1.38 in) wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped, the same shade of green on both sides, 50–140 mm (2.0–5.5 in) long and 10–40 mm (0.39–1.57 in) wide tapering to a petiole 5–25 mm (0.20–0.98 in) long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils on an unbranched peduncle 7–29 mm (0.28–1.14 in) long, the individual buds on pedicels 3–15 mm (0.12–0.59 in) long. Mature buds are oval or diamond-shaped, 6–15 mm (0.24–0.59 in) long and 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) wide with a conical to beaked operculum. Flowering occurs from April to December and the flowers are white, red, pink or creamy yellow. The fruit is a woody cup-shaped to shortened spherical capsule 5–11 mm (0.20–0.43 in) long and 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) wide with the valves below the level of the rim.[3][5][6][7][8]
Two subspecies of E. sideroxylon are accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at December 2019:
Eucalyptus sideroxylon subsp. improceraA.R.Bean[12] is a small, stunted tree and has shorter, wider leaves than the autonym and longer flower buds;[4][13]
Eucalyptus sideroxylon A.Cunn. ex Woolls subsp. sideroxylon.[14]
Mugga ironbark is widespread and often abundant in woodland from south-eastern Queensland through New South Wales to Victoria. Subspecies improcera is only known from the Barakula State Forest north-northwest of Chinchilla.[3][5][13]
^ abcHill, Ken. "Eucalyptus sideroxylon". Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Archived from the original on 19 August 2023. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
^ abBrooker, M. Ian H.; Slee, Andrew V. "Eucalyptus sideroxylon". Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria. Archived from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
^ ab"Eucalyptus sideroxylon". Euclid: Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research. Archived from the original on 22 June 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
^Chippendale, George M. "Eucalyptus sideroxylon". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. Archived from the original on 19 August 2023. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
^Woolls, William (1887). "Notes on Eucalyptus leucoxylon (Series 2)". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 1: 859–860. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
^Backer, C.A. (1936). Verklarend woordenboek der wetenschappelijke namen van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch-Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekweekte varens en hoogere planten (Edition Nicoline van der Sijs).
^ abBean, Anthony R. (2010). "A new subspecies of Eucalyptus sideroxylon A.Cunn. ex Woolls (Myrtaceae) from Queensland". Austrobaileya. 8 (2): 139–141. JSTOR41739124.
^Hart, John H.; Hillis, W. E. (1974). "Inhibition of wood-rotting fungi by stilbenes and other polyphenols in Eucalyptus sideroxylon". Phytopathology. 64 (7): 939–48. doi:10.1094/Phyto-64-939.
